The evidence for hospitals in early indi 23

DOMINIK WUJASTYK 21 endowed with funds for providing choice food and medicines to bestow in charity on widows and bereaved persons, on orphans and the destitute.76 Xuanzang mentions similar merit-houses on several other occasions.77 Clearly these merit-houses are not full-blown hospitals, but are rather to be likened to xenones JAINA HO S P ITALS Jain (1947: 179) stated that the Jaina text Nāyādhammakahā, in the sixth part (aṅga) of the Jaina Canon, described a hospital (Prakrit tigicchiyasālaṃ “medicine hall”) with a hundred pillars where, “a number of physicians and surgeons were employed who treated various kinds of patients with medicine and herbs.”78 While it is not impossible that this interesting description dates to as early as the fifth century CE, it is unfortunately not helpful in establishing the chronology for Indian hospital history because of the notoriously difficult problems surrounding the dating and transmission of Jaina canonical texts.79 The scholarly consensus is that while some texts may have extremely ancient origins, the canon as such was formalized at a council held in Valabhī, Gujarat, in the fifth century.80 W ELEVENTH- CENTURY TIRUM UK K ŪḌDAL E are fortunate that a fairly detailed description has survived from the late eleventh century of a hospital in South India While the earlier account of Caraka recorded a physician’s view of the hospital, the present account gives the view of the financial sponsor The late eleventh century inscription on the wall of the temple at the town of Tirumukkūḍal, not far from Kanchi, covers 540 sq ft., and is 55 ft long.81 76 Beal 1884: I, 198 Cf tr by Rongxi (1996: 115): “Philanthropic kings have constructed almshouses to provide isolated, solitary, and needy people with free food and medical service.” 77 Beal 1884: II, 274, 303 78 Nāyādhammakahā XIII.99 (Vaidya 1940: 143): तए णं नंद े मिणयारसेठी पचिथिमले वणसंड े एगं महं ितिगिछयसालं करेइ अणेगखंभसय ु य जाव पिडरूवं। तथ णं बहवे वेजा य वेजपता ु ा य जाणय ु पता ु य कुसला य कुसलपता ु य जाणय िदनभ ैभतवेयणा बहूणं वािहयाण य िगलाणाण य रोिगयाण य दुबलाण य तेइछकमं करेमाणा िवहरंित। The edition of Schubring (1978) was not available to me (but see the reservations of Bollée (1979) and other reviewers), nor was the commentary of the eleventh-century canonical scholar Abhayadeva Sūri (1919) 79 On the canonical literature of the Jains, see, e.g., Winternitz 1981–5: 2: 428 ff Kapadia 2010, who both skirt issues of chronology 80 Thoughtful discussion by Dundas (2002: ch 3); overview by Singh (2015: 26) 81 Subrahmanya Ayyar 1931–2 See also Gurumurthy 1970; Rama Rao 1995–6 HISTORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 10 (2022) 1–43